CJK Radical Jade

It marks the jade component on a character’s left side.

Shang oracle-bone inscriptions—divination records carved on animal bones or turtle shells—show 玉 as jade pieces strung together. The character named jade and a jade offering. Bronze inscriptions retain the material sense. In the Warring States period, dots or short strokes distinguish 玉 from 王; later component forms preserve that distinction.

Dictionary traditions extend the jade family to beads, gems, rings, surface patterns, precious objects, and metaphorical value. The component is a semantic clue, not a complete translation.

Why does it resemble 王?

玉 changes shape when it becomes a left-side component.

Chinese terms use 玉字旁 (“jade-character side”) or 王字旁 (“king-character side”) for the left component; Japanese dictionaries call it 玉偏. Traditional Chinese radical indexes group the full jade character under 玉部. Characters such as 珍, 理, and 球 show the jade component in larger characters, where it helps with grouping but does not give pronunciation or the whole meaning.

Use ⺩ in radical notes, not as a word

Unicode provides dedicated radical symbols for dictionary lookup and character description, rather than ordinary Han-character writing. A standalone ⺩ belongs in a radical list or analysis note, not in place of the character a word requires.

Font support affects its outline and whether a glyph appears at all. A missing-glyph box means the font or text system has no usable glyph for ⺩.